CH 6

The road from Gu's house to the movies and television city was only travelled halfway, and Lin Zixi was so disliked by his dad that he wanted to jump from the car.

Seeing that the atmosphere in the car, which had returned to silence again, became even more stagnant, he turned over in his mind some random small things that definitely wouldn’t attract troubles. In the end, he turned toward Gu Zecheng and asked tentatively, "Do you have an MP3 or CD in your car?"

"I rarely listen to music when I drive a car." Gu Zecheng replied this way, but he probably felt that it was also awkward for the two of them to continue being silent like this. So he reached out with one hand and turned on the car radio.

After the radio was turned on, the first station was doing emotional counseling. Dad Gu switched to another FM radio, and this station was selling male health care products. Then he switched to another, and it was a program where listeners competed to be the first to answer a question through a hotline to get prizes….

Gu Zecheng's brows became more and more furrowed, and the strength used to press the frequency switch button on the steering wheel was also increasing. When he tuned to the fifth radio station, melodious music was finally released from the stereo.

Gu Zecheng finally loosened his brows, but Lin Zixi, who was in the passenger seat, suddenly stiffened—there were countless popular songs in this world, but the one played by the radio host happened to be the one he sang.

Originally, as an actor (who was not very qualified in acting), Lin Zixi was worlds apart from the singer circle.

However, in today's entertainment industry, if you, as an idol star,  had never sung a few songs, you would feel embarrassed to hold a fan meeting or do a live broadcast.

So, no matter what rank young actors you were or how off-key you were, almost all of them had released two or three singles. The tones all depended on post-production, and hitting the charts relied solely on fans. Basically, no song in these singles went beyond the fan circle.

Lin Zixi, as one of the currently popular young actors who was able to hold ten-thousand-people fan meetings, was naturally no exception. However, he had a slightly higher level of achievement than those in the close circle. That was, under the operation of the company, he had a few songs that were the theme songs he sang for the TV series he starred in. So even passers-by who were not mixed in the fan circle had a certain probability of having listened to the songs he sang.

And now the radio station was playing the ending song he sang for a TV series broadcasted some time ago.

Listening to the graceful singing voice on the radio, which was so auto-tuned he could barely hear his original voice, young actor Lin expressed, this song might as well not go beyond this circle, okay?!

The full version of the song was only three or four minutes, but Lin Zixi, who was on pins and needles in the car, simply felt every second was like a year. After the song was finally played to the end, he still couldn't breathe a sigh of relief because this unlucky music station unexpectedly continued to play the incidental music he sang for the same TV series.

The TV series was a melodramatic story where the male lead loved the supporting female while the female lead loved the male lead, and when the male lead fell in love with the female lead, the female lead loved the supporting male. And this song was specifically played when the plot reached the part where the male lead and the female lead misunderstood and hurt each other.

As one could well imagine, with the man’s silence and the woman’s tears, this song was so sad and depressing it was a pain in the ass.

Listening to this kind of song, which was in the style of ‘you clearly agreed to not leave each other, but you’d betrayed me long ago’ and still sung by himself, with his own dad, Lin Zixi was so embarrassed that his skin was prickling with goosebumps.

But his dad, the second-generation of a high-ranking military officer and a well-known big boss in the domestic business circle, unexpectedly found the song to his liking. He even retracted the hand that was originally placed on the window and began to tap lightly on the steering wheel to the beat of the music.

The situation in the car was really weird now. On the one hand, Lin Zixi was embarrassed, and on the other, he could not help but want to laugh. Without any better option, he chose to turn his line of sight out of the car window and tried hard not to look at the man beside him.

It was another three weird minutes compared to just now, and young actor Lin seemed to have waited for a century. After waiting for a long time, the song finally petered out to silence.

At this time, Gu Zecheng, not having enough of the song, turned his head and asked him, "Do you know the name of the song just now?"

Of course Lin Zixi knew it! Anyone might not, but he had to know it, ah!

But the key question was... in the current situation, could he speak out that the song just now, which scored 60 points for the original voice and 101 points after the auto-tuning (one more point for the post production team despite their arrogance), was sung by himself?!

After being asked so by Gu Zecheng, Lin Zixi was a little at a loss. He was unsure whether he would paint a positive image in front of his own father or be disliked again if he now announced that the singer was himself.

However, he was not at a loss for long because after a brief commercial, the voice of the host of this station came from the radio, "Just now we played the ending song and incidental music sung by Lin Zixi for Ling Long Yue…."

Gu Zecheng paused and then asked in a disbelieving tone, "Is there someone in the entertainment industry who has the same name as you?"

Lin Zixi coughed sheepishly, "The post production master was quite awesome."

Gu Zecheng tapped his finger on the steering wheel a couple of times and eventually said, "Then you sing."

Lin Zixi coughed several times and finally began to sing under Gu Zecheng's urging gaze.

He had not sung this song for a few months, and now he was singing it (badly) in front of his own father. At the beginning, he sang a little flat and out of tune.

However, he had received urgent training and been coached by a professional after all. After he sang a few lines, he gradually got into the song. By the time the song reached the chorus with the words "you clearly agreed to not leave each other, but you’d betrayed me long ago", it really had the feel of the official single after auto-tuning.     

Gu Zecheng, driving the car quietly, never interrupted him and only commented after he finished singing. "Your post production team was indeed awesome." 

This was probably a poor evaluation, right?

Lin Zixi scratched his head unnaturally and heard the man beside him add, "But it's actually more malleable than your acting skills."

...Big brother, will you die if you don't dislike your son?!

Young actor Lin, who had been praised by everyone in the past few years since becoming popular, kept being snubbed since their official meeting until now and was finally unable to bear it anymore. Pulling out a seemingly very sincere smile, he asked, "Have you watched my TV series? Which one is it?"

"I haven’t." Gu Zecheng replied unhesitatingly.

Lin Zixi smiled more sincerely, "You haven't watched the TV series I starred in, but you always criticize me. That's not good, right? Taizu Youyun said that without investigation, you have no right to speak."

"I’ve investigated." Dad Gu shot a glance at him, "'The Disgrace of CFA'. Before your acting skills get better, I don't think I need to watch your TV series."

….

…………

The thinking of his dad and the anti fans was surprisingly consistent, and it was impossible to refute. Young actor Lin felt that he was really here to pay his mom's debt.

Having received an excess of blows in one night, Lin Zixi remained silent during an hour’s drive to the hotel where the crew was staying.

Gu Zecheng also stopped speaking. Fortunately, the music station on the radio had been playing various styles of songs, and the atmosphere in the car was suppressed to the point that it was not too bad.

When arriving at the destination, Gu Zecheng naturally couldn't ask the doorman to park his car. After he drove into the unmanned parking lot, he and Lin Zixi got out of the car.

"Your room number is 1808?" After locking the car, he said, "You go back to your room first. I’ll find you later."

"Oh. Bye-bye." Lin Zixi waved dispiritedly and walked towards the elevator.

His dad stopped him with another sentence, "You may be more promising in singing than acting, so you can consider transforming."

Although he could barely regard this speech as an affirmation and encouragement to him, the domestic music industry had been so chaotic that even the great gods had to rely on going to variety shows to promote their existence. Regarding Gu Zecheng's words, young actor Lin only wanted to greet him, ah, no, which was their common ancestors of eighteen generations.

However, you had to be polite when treating your own dad, and still a victim dad at that.

"Thank you, haha." Lin Zixi replied.